


Danny Boy

by 0bviousLeigh



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien rescue, Gen, Keith is a former foster kid, alien baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 15:12:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10027487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Keith’s not sure when he learned this song. He looked it up once, apparently it’s an old Irish song, but he can’t remember living with an Irish family, and he definitely doesn’t remember his dad singing it to him. He wonders if his own mother sang it to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> It's really short but consider this—Keith being really good with kids because of all the foster babies he saw come through the doors of his homes.

After the fiasco with Rolo and Nyma, they’re a lot more cautious about investigating distress calls, but this one is genuine. They send a drone to fly over the scene as they prepare the ship to land, and immediately realize that they have no time to waste. There’s a tiny, utterly wrecked ship, and inside is a gravely injured alien. Keith may not know much about alien biology, but he’s pretty sure that the dark splotches covering the alien’s jumpsuit are blood, and there’s an awful lot of it.

Shiro and Keith take a pod down to the planet so they can administer first aid while Allura lands the castle-ship. As the two of them get close enough to truly take in the damage, they realize that the alien has the mangled remains of a collar around their neck, and the sharp edges of the collar have left deep gashes in their throat.

“Can you hear me?” Shiro calls as he pries open the wrecked ships front window. “We’re here to help, don’t move, we’ll get you out soon."

The alien starts to speak, “Slave traders…there were more, I was the only one strong enough…I barely got away, there were so many…it’s not mine, but she begged me…”

Shiro tosses away the broken piece of the window and Keith hands him gauze.

“Please try not to talk,” Shiro says as he applies pressure to the gashes around the alien’s throat.

The alien reaches for the zipper on their jumpsuit and pulls it down. A tiny, frighteningly limp body is pressed to the alien’s chest.

“She begged me…” the alien repeats, “Begged me to save her baby…”

As it’s uncovered, the baby stirs—it’s still alive. Keith grabs a blanket from the first aid kit and maneuvers around Shiro to take the baby. As he takes it away from the alien, the baby begins to wail, and he quickly wraps it in the blanket and tucks it against his chest. He taps into his communicator.

“We need a third person,” he tells Allura. If he’s holding the baby, he can’t help Shiro get the injured alien back on the ship.

Hunk shoots out of the castle-ship and helps Shiro load the injured alien on to a stretcher. Shiro keeps talking to the alien, trying to keep them calm, but the alien has eyes only for the baby in Keith’s arms.

“He wasn’t hurt in the crash, but it’s been days, he’s hungry…please, take care of him, I promised her he would grow up safe…”

Keith takes the alien’s hand as they jet back to the castle-ship. “I’ll take care of him,” he vows.

Shiro, Allura, and Hunk rush the injured alien to a healing pod, and Keith carries the baby to the command center, finally getting a chance to actually look at the baby. It—he—isn’t crying anymore, he’s snuggled up against Keith’s chest, one tiny fist curled up right over Keith’s heart. Keith hasn’t seen many aliens in his time in space. The baby looks like a cross between an amphibian and a lizard, he has smooth, purple skin, large eyes and a tiny ridge of a nose. There’s a thin web of skin between his fingers, and whisker-like protrusions under his jaw.

Keith jogs into the command center, past Lance and Pidge, and up to Coran. “There was a baby in the ship,” he says, pulling the blanket back to show Coran the infant.

Coran gasps. “An infant Daibazaal!”

“Oh, so you are familiar with them,” Keith sighs in relief. “The alien in the ship said it had been days, he’s probably hungry, what can we give him?”

Coran is already halfway out of the room, shouting that he’s sure he can get the ship to genetically modify something so they can feed the baby. Keith adjusts his grip on the infant and sinks into a chair. The adrenaline rush of the rescue is starting to fade, leaving him with a familiar, if half-forgotten, ache in his chest as he looks down at the infant.

Pidge pops up at Keith’s elbow. “I can’t tell if he’s cute or ugly,” she says.

“Hey!” Keith scolds, “All babies are cute.”

The baby yawns, showing off a mouth full of sharp teeth. Pidge leaps back with a yelp, and even Keith has to admit, it’s a little unsettling, but the baby blinks up at him and reaches up with tiny fingers flexing, and Keith’s heart melts. He leans down and the baby grabs at his nose, squeezing gently, almost curiously.

Keith laughs softly. “I bet you’ve never seen anything quite like me before, have you?”

The baby gurgles.

“Aww, he is kind of cute,” Lance coos. “How do you know it’s a boy?”

“The alien in the ship called it a boy,” Keith says, brushing his finger over the baby’s face. The baby turns towards his finger and nips at it. It doesn’t hurt, but Keith gets the message.

“I know, you’re hungry,” he says quietly. He allows the baby to mouth at his finger, but as he realizes that it’s not food, he begins to cry again. Keith presses the baby to his chest, cradling his head against his neck. He rubs gently at the baby’s back, and rocks back and forth slowly. The baby’s cries slowly taper off, and he snuffles softly at Keith’s neck.

“You need a name,” Keith murmurs.

Coran comes tearing back into the room, brandishing a baby bottle. “I’ve got it!”

Keith gives him a dirty look as the baby begins crying again.

“Sorry about that,” Coran says, handing the bottle over to Keith.

“Me?” Keith asks. “I don’t know how to feed alien babies!”

“I doubt it’s different from earth babies,” Coran says, “Besides, you seemed to be doing just fine until I came screaming in here.”

“You’ve got that right,” Lance says, “Keith’s a babe magnet, who knew?”

“It’s not like that,” Keith snaps.

Lance raises an eyebrow. “Easy dude, I’m trying to compliment you.”

Keith does know that, but still…he shakes those thoughts from his head and cradles the baby in the crook of his arm. He presses the tip of the bottle to the corner of the baby’s mouth, and for a few seconds he continues to wail, but eventually he realizes that food is nearby, and he latches onto the bottle and starts sucking it down.

Keith doesn’t let him drink too much at first, and the baby whines when Keith pulls the bottle away.

“I know,” Keith coos, “But I don’t want you to get sick.”

To distract the baby, Keith lays him out on his legs, and he covers his face with his hands. “Uh-oh! What happened?” He asks. He peeks over the tips of his fingers. “Boo!”

The baby giggles. Good to know that even alien babies appreciate a game of peek-a-boo.

Shiro, Allura, and Hunk reenter the command room a few minutes later, and Keith stops playing with the baby long enough to ask if the other alien will be okay.

“She was injured pretty badly,” Allura says worriedly, “I’m not sure she would have lived a few more hours. Even now, it’s difficult to say. The healing pod can fix many things but it can’t…well, she may be too far gone.”

Keith’s heart sinks. “What…what happens to the baby if she dies?”

Allura holds up a piece of paper. “This was in her jumpsuit, it’s a letter from the baby’s mother, detailing the last known whereabouts of her family. If she dies, we’ll bring the baby to her family.”

“She mentioned slave traders,” Shiro says, “And she was wearing a collar. What do you know about that, if anything?”

But Keith doesn’t want to listen to talk about slave traders. He picks up the baby and takes him somewhere that he won’t have to listen to that kind of talk. He walks aimlessly, letting the baby have another go at the bottle. His feet end up taking him to the observation deck, where the yawning emptiness of space stretches out endlessly, for anyone to see. Keith finds it beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time, just like this baby.

“I can’t keep calling you baby,” Keith says as he sits, leaning against the glass of the window. The baby’s eyes flick to the window, then back to Keith’s face.

“What did Coran say you are? A Daibazaal? That’s a mouthful…how about Danny?”

He pulls the bottle away again. Danny cries, and Keith rocks him.

“There’s a song about a boy named Danny on earth,” Keith says. “It’s a pretty depressing song. But it’s kind of fitting. Who knows where your mother is? The alien who brought you here said she was the only one strong enough to get away, so I’m sure wherever your mom is, she’s not in good shape. You and I have that in common. We’ll probably never know what became of our mothers.” Keith sighs. “I might as well sing the song.”

Keith’s not much of a singer, but babies are an easy audience. They don’t care if you’re off-key, or if your voice breaks when you sing a sad song.

 _“Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,_  
_From glen to glen, and down the mountain side._  
_The summer's gone, and all the roses dying,_  
_‘tis you, ‘tis you must go and I must bide.”_

Keith’s not sure when he learned this song. He looked it up once, apparently it’s an old Irish song, but he can’t remember living with an Irish family, and he definitely doesn’t remember his dad singing it to him. He wonders if his own mother sang it to him.

 _“But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,_  
_And all the valley's hushed and white with snow,_  
_And I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow,_  
_Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.”_

Some people think it’s about a mother sending her son off to war.

 _“But if you come, when all the flowers are dying,_  
_And I am dead, as dead I well may be,_  
_Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying,_  
_And kneel and say an ‘Avé’ there for me.”_

Keith thinks it’s about a boy who never knows what happened to his mother, and he thinks about it every day. Is she dead? Is she alive? Does she miss her son every day of her life, the way he misses her?

 _“And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,_  
_And then my grave will rich and sweeter be,_  
_For you will bend and tell me that you love me,_  
_and I shall rest in peace until you come to me…”_

But that’s Keith’s story, not what the song is really about. Still, it seems kind of fitting. Maybe his mother is dead, buried in a grave that never gets flowers laid on it. Maybe she’s alive and well, and has forgotten about him. Maybe Keith is the only one who wonders what could have been.

_“And I shall rest in peace until you come to me.”_

Danny is sleeping. Keith clears his throat and carefully wipes his eyes. He hears a sniffle that’s definitely not his own and looks up.

“Creeping on me?” He asks Lance.

Lance shrugs. “Kind of. Where did you learn that song?”

It’s Keith’s turn to shrug. “I’ve just always known it, I guess.”

“Why would you sing that to a baby?” Lance grumbles, tears in his eyes. “It’s…horrible.”

“Not everything is sunshine and rainbows,” Keith says. He looks down at Danny. His face is peaceful now that he’s eaten and is being held, cradled in a warm blanket. Danny doesn’t know that the future is uncertain. But Keith knows that. “Sometimes babies don’t get to live happily ever after, with a mom and a dad and a nice house. That’s what this song is about. It’s about saying goodbye.”

And Keith knows all about goodbyes. He’s said them more times than he can count. He swallows past a lump in his throat. “I sang it to all of them,” he says quietly, half hoping Lance won’t hear.

Lance sits next to Keith. “All of who?”

Keith sighs. Of course he heard. He debates not saying anything. He can get up and walk away. What business does Lance have knowing it? But Keith kind of did open the door to this.

“When I was a kid I spent a lot of time in homes that were interim care certified. It means that they took in babies for short periods of time while birth mothers considered their options, or agencies looked for next of kin. Sometimes we only had them for one night. Sometimes a few weeks. Nothing was ever certain for those babies. They didn’t know that, of course. They were just…normal babies. They slept, they ate, they experienced the world for the first time. But everyone else knew that there was no stability guarantee for them. Whenever we got one of those babies I…I’d sneak into their rooms at night and talk to them. I’d tell them about how to deal with moving from family to family, what it was like to switch schools so many times. I mean, it’s different for babies. Everyone wants to adopt them. But not all of them can go to the perfect family. There’s no promise of love. As much as I hoped they would never be like…”

Like me.

“Well I just knew that someone needed to prepare them for that possibility.”

Keith looks over at Lance. He looks heartbroken.

“It’s not fair,” Lance says, his voice breaking. “What kind of world do we live in where not even a baby can be safe and loved?”

How many times did Keith say exactly that? It wasn’t fair to the babies, it wasn’t fair to him, nothing about it was fair. Even now, when Keith was a pilot of Voltron, supposedly the most powerful thing in the entire universe, he still couldn’t guarantee any kind of future for poor little Danny. Not even Voltron could defeat the force known as uncertainty.

“Welcome to my world,” Keith says.

Danny stirs and Keith rocks him gently. He starts to sing again, and Lance leaves. Once again it’s just Keith, Danny, and the emptiness of space.

**Author's Note:**

> And the alien they rescued turns out to be okay and she takes the baby to his mother's family, but as my friends pointed out to me, this ending really fits in with the uncertainty of the future that Keith talks about.
> 
> Daibazaal was the name of Zarkon in Golion. The baby doesn't really look like him, I guess...? there are some similarities, mainly the purple skin, idk I just pictured a purple baby when I was writing this.
> 
> There are a lot of variations of lyrics for this song, I took the lyrics from this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gx2SoHK3LQ


End file.
